Eggs, Jelly Beans, & a Trip to the Movies

This week was our last week before Spring Break.  As much as I love teaching, I am looking forward to a nice long break.  The weather here in Wisconsin hasn't been very spring like but hopefully it can still be a relaxing few days away.

This week started by talking about Easter egg hunts.  We talked what eggs looked like in the carton and how eggs for hunting look.  After that, we completed a writing activity where each student worked on coloring, writing their names, and color identification.  Most of our writing activities are centered around my littler learners names and then have a little added flair to them.  I was really happy with how it turned out.

Tuesday was a special day.  As part of a school-wide positive behavior incentive program, my students earned a trip to the movie with 170 other kids from our school.  My little learners were so excited, but I underestimated what a movie with 3 and 4 year olds would be like.  Thank goodness our school had the theatre all to themselves.  All in all, it was a very fun experience.

The next day, we were back to business as usual. We did not do a new letter of the week this week as it was a short week, so instead we reviewed by playing different games on the SmartBoard.  We also worked on a jelly bean interactive reader.  My students had to count the beans, write or trace the number in the sentence, and then color the beans by the word in the sentence.  You can find the reader in my Jelly Bean Early Learning Pack or by itself in my store by clicking the pictures below.

We continued the jelly bean learning on Thursday by sorting 6 different colored jellybeans.  This was of course my little learners favorite activity because once they were done, they could eat the jelly beans!  The mats are also in my Jelly Bean Early Learning Pack.

No short, before holiday week would be complete without a lot of playing.  This little lady decided that she was going to be a loner during iPad time and play with the blocks.  How could I say no?

If you think your little learners would have as much fun as mine did with these activities you can find them here:

   

I will be taking the next week to work on some products, do some planning, and enjoy some time with family both near and far.  I hope everyone else is enjoying their spring breaks or long holidays.

We're Going To The Zoo

In Milwaukee, we are very lucky to have access to a high quality zoo.  The Milwaukee County Zoo has lots of really neat programming that will come out to your school for a learning opportunity.  It also provides a great field trip for students of all ages.  This week, we learned about zoo animals in preparation for our trip on Thursday. 

The zoo trip is an all day trip and we don't have school on Friday, so it was a quick three days of packing in as much zoo animal and zoo behavior expectations as we could. On Monday, we introduced zoo animals by reading "1, 2, 3 at the Zoo" by Eric Carle.  We also did Farm Animal or Zoo Animal sort that can be found in the We're Going to the Zoo Early Learning Pack in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  This sort is tricky for my students because being in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County Zoo actually has a working Dairy Farm on the grounds.  Many of my students have never been to an actual farm so they think that cows, horses, goats, and donkeys are zoo animals too.  We talked a lot about how real farms are very large and have a variety of other animals as well.

On Tuesday, we reread our story and then completed a counting book that is also in the Early Learning Pack.  My students really got into this counting book.  I loved seeing them also say these are zoo animals and apply the knowledge from the day before.

On Wednesday, we read our pocket chart story "I see animals." My little learners love to do pocket chart readings.  I go through each line with them first and then each student comes up and gets to read a line.  I love hearing "Ms. Kelsey, I'm a reader."  After we completed a book with the same words where they needed to match the animal pictures to what they read.  My 4 and 5 year olds had a great time taking these books back to their regular education teachers and showing them how they could read!

Finally, the day of our big trip had arrived.  My K3 students could barely eat their breakfast because they were so excited and talking about the animals they were going to see.  The zoo trip is an all day trip which is very long for my 3 year old who are used to just a half day of school.  We spent the day walking around with our friends in the Autism classrooms.  It's so much fun to watch how excited my kiddos get when they see the animals.  It's a great day of communication opportunities and fun.

We had a professional development day on Friday, but I was beat for sure.  I look forward to the zoo trip every year, but am always glad when it's done.  Stop by my Teachers Pay Teachers store to check out my Zoo Early Learning Pack and Interactive Emergent Readers.  I'm sure your little learners will love them just as much as mine did!

Things That Go!

This week was all about Things That Go!  I normally would spend two weeks on this, but March is a weird month with several non-instructional days and then Spring Break.  I shortened up our activities so that we can also get to Zoo animals and Jelly Beans this month.

The first day, we introduced Things That Go! by doing a transportation sort from Play to Learn Preschool.  I really love her Circle Time and Centers theme packs.  We use different parts of them in a variety of ways and there are so many activities that I can give even my students who are with me for 3 years a lot of variety year after year.  We hung the sort once completed on our focus wall to look at all during the week.

 

On Tuesday, we color sorted red, yellow, and green to make stop lights.  I love craftivities and feel like some of my students really learn best from them because they don't even realize they are learning.  Sorting, color identification, following directions, and task completion all worked on in one simple activity.

My favorite activity was on Wednesday.  We made name trains.  Each student worked at their level to make train out of their name.  Some matched, some just needed boxes to define space, some just put the letters down.  Then, we traced each letter to work on proper letter formation.  Everything turned out so cute.  I was so impressed how even my most resistant writers were into this project.  You can fine this project in my Teachers Pay Teachers Shop.

On Thursday, we completed an interactive emergent reader called "I see a parking lot."  My little learners used car stickers to complete the pictures to match the words in the book.  There are two levels to the reader.  One where students work on one to one correspondance by putting a sticker on a dot already in the parking lot and the other students put the correct number of cars by counting.  You can find the reader in my Teacher Pay Teacher store by clicking below.

Friday is kind of a weird day in our classroom.  Our occupational therapist does a group for all of my students and the timing throws our normal schedule off, so I take that day to cook snack with my students.  There are so many skills for even young children to learn by cooking together.  I love the conversation and different skills my kiddos are doing each week.  This week, we made grilled cheese roll-ups.  You can find the original recipe at Cook, Crave, Inspire by Spend with Pennies.  My kiddos assembled after a demonstration and then I cooked the rolls on a griddle while they were in OT group.  I love watching my students attempt to do the assembling just as they were shown.  I try to pick a recipe that has a few steps and enough "work" for everyone to do.

These roll-ups were a unanimous hit, which is very rare in our room.  One of my little guys ate 3!!  

Next week is a 4 day week with a field trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo, so check back to see how we prepare and get ready to learn about Zoo animals.